Display cabinet



United States Patent DISPLAY CABINET Clayton J. Ehlert and Edmund T. Dulfy, Fort Wayne,

Ind., assignors to The Weatherhead Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application September 24, 1956, Serial No. 611,630

3 Claims. (Cl. 312-122) This invention relates to a display cabinet and more particularly to a display cabinet comprising a plurality of transparent storage drawers that are arranged to provide convenient access for small parts and wherein drawer supports and the drawers jointly produce a novel display promoting interest in the products contained in the drawers.

It is among the objects of our invention to provide a compact cabinet with a series of sloping shelves for supporting a plurality of transparent drawers so that the drawers are urged by gravity down the slope into a stable storage position against a translucent or transparent panel and wherein illumination means are provided in back of the panel so that the contents of the drawers are illuminated through the panel and wherein the drawers are constructed and arranged so as to form indicia stimulating interest in the product stored in the cabinet.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a storage cabinet wherein supporting plates are arranged in series spaced vertically from each other and wherein each plate is tilted downwardly along the rear edge thereof and wherein each plate in the series is offset vertically from the plate therebeneath so that a plurality of storage drawers supported by said plates are urged by gravity rearwardly of the plates into abutment with an inclined wall common to all of the plates of the series.

Further objects and advantages relating to the low cost manufacture, advertising display characteristics, simplicity in construction and efficiency in use will appear in the following description and in the appended drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is an elevation in perspective of the display cabinet made according to my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the plane 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the drawer employed in the display cabinet of my invention; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view with parts in section illustrating the interlocking support members for the drawers.

The display cabinet comprises a rectangular metal frame having vertical side walls 5 and 6 and bottom walls 7 and 8. The forward edges of each of the walls 5 to 8, inclusive, are provided with an inturned flange such as 7a or 8:1 illustrated in the sectional view of Fig. 2. The inturned flanges, such as 7a and 6a, are welded to each other at the corners as indicated at 9 in Fig. 1 so that a rigid rectangular frame structure is provided having a relatively wide bottom wall 7 and a comparatively narrow top wall 8 with the side walls 5 and 6 sloping from the bottom toward the top. A series of vertical metal strips 10 are welded at the bottom as at 11 to the interior of the frame and at the top as at 12. The strips 10 are spaced from each other a distance slightly exceeding the width of one of the storage drawers indicated at 15. The strips 10 are inclined so as to be substantially parallel with the forward edge of the side walls 5 and 6 and each of the strips 10 are notched at their forward edge as at 13 to receive the drawer supporting plates 14. The notches 13 2,898,171 Patented Aug. 4, 1959 ICC are normal to the forward edge of the supporting strips 10 and thus the supporting plates 14 are tilted downwardly toward the rear edge. The leading or forward edge of each supporting plate 14 is provided with an inturned flange 14a and the rearward edge of the supporting plate is provided with a similar down-tilted flange 14b. The supporting plates 14 are notched as indicated at 16 to accommodate the strip 10 as best illustrated in Fig. 4.

Preferably the supporting plates 14 extend the full width of the cabinet, i.e., from the interior wall 5 to the interior of the opposite wall 6 and are spot welded or otherwise secured to the vertical walls 5 and 6. A transparent or translucent wall member 17 is mounted within the display cabinet by brackets 18 and 19 so as to abut the rear edges of the plates 14 and so that the wall 17 is a common wall closing the ends of the compartments formed by the strips 10 and the plates 14.

A transparent plastic drawer 15 is provided which is proportioned to substantially fill each of the compartments formed by the plates 14 and the strips 10. The plastic drawers are each provided with a forward wall 20 having an outwardly and downwardly turned portion 21a constituting a handle for the drawer. The rear wall 21 of the drawer is slightly higher than the forward wall 20 and the side walls and is joined to the side walls of the drawer at the rear thereof so as to provide the lug portions 22 and 23 serving as drawer stops after the drawer 15 has been arranged in the cabinet.

As illustrated in the phantom outline shown in Fig. 2, the drawer stops 22 and 23 may be inserted in back of the flange 14a at the forward edge of the plate 14 with the front of the drawer raised. Thereafter the front end of the drawer may be lowered so that the bottom of the drawer is parallel to and rests on the plate 14 as shown in the full line illustration of Fig. 2. In this way the flanges 14a and 14b co-operate with the lugs 22 and 23 on the drawer so as to provide a drawer stop with the drawers in closed position and in open position. The drawers may be removed from the cabinet without spilling the contents of the drawers and yet they will not be inadvertently pulled out from the cabinet by normal opening of the drawer.

In the molding of the transparent drawer, a rib is formed at each side of the drawer adjacent the forward wall 20. The ribs, as indicated at 24 and 25, provide a holder within the drawer for the label insert 26. It will be understood that the display cabinet is well suited for the storage of small metal parts such as tube fittings for automotive fuel and hydraulic systems and that the label inserts 26 may carry the indicia identifying the parts stored within the drawer. The label inserts supplied with each display cabinet include inserts 26 made of translucent colored material and thus a display, such as the trade mark of the manufacturers gods, may be formed by arranged a series of colored inserts as shown in Fig. l. The particular diamond design presented by the display cabinet illustrated may be changed from time to time by the selection and arrangement of difierently colored label inserts. Sales interest in the product is stimulated by the over-all resemblance of the cabinet to a television set. Such interest is maintained by the changes accomplished by rearranging the colored label inserts.

Within the cabinet and in back of the wall 17 illumination is provided in the form of fluorescent tubes 30, or the like, and the illumination from the source 30 is diffused through the translucent panel 17 so as to evenly illuminate the contents of the plastic drawers carried within the cabinet. This arrangement provides for a visual inventory of parts carried as well as contributing to the illuminated display resulting from the arrangement of the colored drawer label inserts.

Although we have shown and described one form of our invention in considerable detail, it will be understood that numerous modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.

We claim:

1. A display cabinet comprising a rectangular frame having a horizontally disposed wide bottom wall, a horizontally disposed relatively narrow top wall and opposed vertical side walls connecting the top and bottom walls, each of the walls of said rectangular frame having an inturned inwardly inclinded flange at the forward edge thereof, said flanges secured to each other at the corners of the frame, a series of vertically disposed spaced metal strips secured at their lower edges to the bottom wall of said frame inwardly of said flange and to the upper edges of the top'wall of said frame inwardly of said frame, the forward edge of each of said vertical strips being inclined from the bottom inwardly toward the top, said forward edges having notches therein normal to the forward edge, a series of drawer supporting plates having notches therein to interlock with the notches in said vertically disposed strips whereby rectangular drawer compartments are formed by the plates and strips and a transparent plastic drawer mounted in each of said compartments, a flat wall along the rear edge of said plates closing one end of said compartments along the rear edge of said plates.

2. A display cabinet as defined in claim 1 wherein said flat wall closing one end of the compartments is formed of translucent material, a light mounted within the cabinet in back of said wall and colored inserts mounted in certain 4 of said drawers at the front wall of the drawer to form a geometric design.

3. A display cabinet comprising a rectangular frame having a horizontally disposed wide bottom wall, a horizontally disposed relatively narrow top wall and opposed vertical side walls connecting the top and bottom walls, each of the walls of said rectangular frame having an inturned inwardly inclined flange at the forward edge thereof, said flanges secured to each other at the corners of the frame, a series of vertically disposed spaced metal strips secured at their lower edges to the bottom wall of said frame inwardly of said flange and to the upper edges of the top wall of said frame inwardly of said frame, the forward edge of each of said vertical strips being inclinded from the bottom inwardly toward the top, said forward edges having notches therein normal to the forward edge, a series of drawer supporting plates having notches therein to interlock with the notches in said vertically disposed strips to provide a plurality of rectangular compartments between the plates and strips.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES P ATENTS 1,352,101 Swales 3 Sept. 7, 1920 1,591,774 Payzant -I July 6, 1926 1,617,799 Emanuel Feb. 15, 1927 1,756,880 Rand Apr. 29, 1930 2,176,913 Mandel Oct. 24, 1939 2,462,330 Mueller Feb. 22, 1949 2,576,508 Gluckman Nov. 27, 1951 2,692,808 Marsh Oct. 26, 1954 

